The traditional method of stringing tennis racquets with interwoven strings has resulted in a relatively hard, unyielding string surface, whereby the ball bounces quickly off of the conventional racquet. The result is that the player has little contact of the racquet and ball with which to achieve ball control.
Ball control is very important in order to provide top spin so that a ball tends to curve downward and land in the court rather than going straight and falling outside the court.
Another disadvantage of the conventional stringing is that in hard-hitting, the vibrations have been transferred from the strings to the player's elbow and shoulders, causing the common injuries known as "tennis elbow" and "tennis shoulder".
A further disadvantage of conventional stringing has been that the strings present a total area which is larger than desirable causing wind resistance and slowing down the swinging of the racquet. It is important in hard play, and also important for amateurs, that it be possible to swing a racquet as quickly as possible. This is because the tiniest fraction of a second difference can cause the ball, either to be struck while it is at the right place, or else too far forward or too far rearward with respect to the player, making accuracy very difficult.
I have done research into the matter of stringing tennis racquets much more loosely and with strings that are not interwoven.
The result was that because the strings could yield, the contact of the strings with the ball was longer and a greater ball control was achievable. When applying a turning motion of the racquet head across the top of the back of the ball, the effect was that the main strings could yield downwardly at first, and then as they regained their positions by moving upwardly with respect to the frame, they would give a great amount of spin to the ball, causing it to curve down into the court in a desirable manner.
However, I found that the strain on strings hitting a ball was great to the end that strings could break from being twisted. Later I conceived of the idea of having tubes, slightly larger than the strings in outer diameter, disposed on the main strings and glued in place. I then attached together a row of such tubes, having a row extending along a cross-string, then all tubes in a row worked together as a unit, shifting together as a unit with respect to the frame and causing the main strings extending through the tubes of the row to shift only as a unit. This had the result of causing each string to be supported by other strings connected to the same row of tubes, reducing breakage. Since such a row of tubes and the portions connecting the tubes tend to put spin on a ball, they can together be called a spin-making unit or spinner.
I found that a system of main strings on one side of a racquet, and spinners connected thereto, will tend to shift only as a unit with respect to the frame, whereby such a unit reinforces all parts of the unit, preventing the various strings from twisting and breaking and for providing an effective unitary spin control on the ball.
I prefer that the tubes of a row be connected by connecting sections that are of one piece with the tubes of that row so that an entire spinner can be made of one piece of thermo-plastic material for economical molding. The stiffness of each spinner, therefore, holds the tubes of that spinner in exact spacing. I have also discovered that by having the tubes of a row all connected together by stiff plastic connecting portions that such one-piece spinners make the racquet easier to string and quicker to string.
I discovered that glue will move by capillary action through the tubes when glue is placed at one end for making the gluing quick and very effective, since the glue bonds all along the inner side of a tube.
Increased safety results from the possibility that my system gives for having the strings loosely strung so that they tend to absorb the shock of hard hitting and to prevent vibration from traveling up the players arm. This sharply reduces "tennis elbow" and "tennis shoulder".
It is not uncommon for young tennis players, even starting at the ages of five to seven years old, to practice three or four hours a day, and later on to practice six hours a day in preparing for a tennis career. One of the main reasons for needing all this practice is to become expert at getting top spin on the ball. The amount of physical stress on a player is very great. But I have discovered that top spin abilities can be achieved and maintained with three hours of practice a day instead of six for excellent performance by using my racquet system for providing the top spin. Often a serious player has problems and pain in all parts of his body due to the starting and stopping of his whole body weight, because of long hours of practice. Cross country runners in track meets and in practice do not have such a problem of stopping and starting and the resultant body stress. It is important to be able to reduce the necessary hours of practice to reduce all this starting and stopping stress.
I have discovered that the very best advanced training for tennis players is achievable with my racquet because the looser strings make it impossible to get the ball back over the net without a full swing and follow through. Hence, using my racquet, the temptation to take a short hit at a ball is eliminated and the player does his best to get his body into a position for a full swing, which is the best habit.
I have found that my racquet is good for practice in preparation for using a conventional racquet. This is because the player develops confidence when he finds the ball going in the court resultant from his tendency to take a full stroke. Hence, he habitually uses full strokes when later playing with a conventional interwoven string racquet.
I have discovered that two independent layers of main strings on opposite sides of the racquet, each with their separate attached spinners, is very important. This is because the cross-strings of a single set of main strings would tend to be behind the main strings as they should be when the ball is hit on one side, but they would be in front of the main strings if the ball was hit on the other side of the racquet.
Therefore, with only one set of main strings it would be necessary to turn the racquet over in a hand in order to hit a back-hand stroke right after a fore-hand stroke. The time required to turn the racquet over is a split-second which is very important. Therefore, my solution is to provide a completely separate set of string and spinner combination unit for each side of the racquet so that the racquet will function equally when it hits the ball on each side of the racquet. This is done by having the cross strings extending between the two layers of main strings.
In tournament play, if both opponents have racquets of substantially equal quality, then there is a fairness achieved whether they are both playing with conventional racquets or both playing with my kind of racquet. But the pleasure of the game for both experts and amateurs will be greatly enhanced because it is more fun to see the ball you hit having adequate top spin to land inside the court.
I have found that my racquet system works on racquets made of any materials in common use today. It also works well on both over-sized and conventional size racquets.
The slice, or underspin is enhanced in the same way as the top spin but by a shifting of the ball-hitting strings in an upward direction with their following down-motion giving the underspin whereby there is no disadvantage and the advantages are appreciated by both beginners and experts.
The ball-grips, which are preferably the tubes of spinners, can be made from anyone of many materials, such as many thermoplastics, nylon, cord, wood, aluminum, cloth, rubber or leather, and the entire spinner can be made from such materials, although those that can be machine molded and be substantially rigid are much preferred.